Reckless: Hounding - Act 2
by redmoon
Hounding - Act 2
Six years earlier...
Niki leaned closer against the ornate wooden railing. The cold brass handle was gripped tightly in her hand. Her eyes were fixed on the coffin’s occupant. Lain upon thick silken cushions, the dressed up, made up face of her father seemed to sleep peacefully before the gathered mourners.
Niki had never felt as alone as she did among the sea of black ties and weeping women. Her mother lay in an identical coffin across from the girl’s father. She too wore the makeup of death. Wore the peaceful expression of death. Niki sniveled. She wasn’t concerned about appearing brave before these many black-suited people who she had never met. Her family had always been just the three of them. Even her band had kept their distance from her. None of them had shown up today. That suited her just fine. Her life as a drummer was over.
Niki Valtaine wore black today, as she did almost every day, her black leather jacket surrounding her like a warm blanket. But the warmth was thin now, easily penetrated by that train wreck of grief which was spread before her in matching coffins.
Then the hand found her shoulder. She looked up and her innocent eyes hardened into a cold glare. Richard Addison. Her new legal guardian. A man of no relation to the family, he had been able to provide documents assuring authorities that her parents had named him Niki’s protector if anything should happen to them. Then something had.
Niki wasn’t altogether clear what a Watcher was, but he was her’s now and he was the only one who could be allowed to know of her sudden great strength. He was the only one who knew about the vampires and the demons. He was the only one now.
The tall British man hugged her shoulders in as cold and impersonal a way as she had ever known. His eyes, old and blue beneath his grey eyebrows, showed none of the sadness of even the most distant relation at this visitation. And he was her’s now. And she was his.
Niki plunked herself down in the stool next to Logan at the far end of the Biter’s bar. Felix smiled his ever-present smile as he made his way towards them behind the bar, cleaning a suspiciously similar glass. “Evening, kids. What’s new?”
“Some pomp and circumstance has taken a one way trip across the pond.” Logan smiled and reached behind the bar for the brandy. “Her Watcher’s finally cut the apron strings.”
Felix smiled, despite Niki’s sullenness. “Hey, that’s great, kid. Time to work without a net.” He set the glass down and filled it with Niki’s usual. “Here’s to working without a net... and being a tight rope walker, not a fisherman.”
Niki raised the glass and clinked it with Logan’s bottle. But as Logan took a swig, the Slayer just looked into her glass of golden liquid. “Tell me more about the phosphorus.”
“Nosphorus,” Felix corrected with a grin. “What’s to tell?”
Logan frowned. “Everything. I haven’t heard this joke before.”
Felix leaned in conspiratorially. “Alright, so this vampire goes into a bar, and he orders a cup of hot water...”
Logan frowned. “Oh, wait, I have heard this one.” He turned to Niki. “But seriously, what’s a Nosphorus?” He glanced from the demon at the bar to the Slayer at his side.
Finally Felix shrugged. “A vampire who has been infected with a demonic plague.”
Logan snapped his fingers. “Of course! From Greek Nosferus, plague carrier.” The man frowned. “So we’ve got a sick, Greek vampire? What’s he got? Anaemia?”
Felix’s grin widened. “Har, har, har.” He shook his head and pulled Niki’s drink from her hands. “He’s got the only disease that the undead can carry. Just called the Plague, it only infects humans, but can only be transmitted by vampires. They spread it between each other and eventually to everyone they bite, through their saliva.”
“Like monkeys with ebola,” Logan was nodding. “What are the symptoms?”
“For the human sufferers,” Felix somehow didn’t lose his grin, “hallucinations, blackouts, memory loss, schizophrenia, paranoia... the list goes on. Eventually, a society into which just one Nosphorus has been introduced will collapse completely.”
“And in marches the Macedonian army,” Niki said sullenly. To her Logan turned a confused expression, but said nothing.
“Except in this case, we’re not talking about a Greek city state,” Felix smiled. “There would be no possibility of containment, not in today’s world. The Plague would spread across–” Felix stopped as a vampire plunked himself down in the stool next to Niki.
Pearce looked at the suspicious faces. “Can’t a guy get a drink around here?”
Niki’s face constricted into a glare. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“You know him?” Logan said with the tiniest hint of jealousy.
“Prince of Pierce,” Pearce stuck out his hand to the man in the brown blazer. The hand was pointedly ignored. “Friends just call me Pearce, though.” He retracted his hand as if he had never offered it and turned back to the barkeep. “I’ll have what they’re having,” he said convivially.
Logan slowly leaned in to whisper in Niki’s ear, but did so just loud enough for all to hear. “Can I... um...” he made a stabbing gesture.
Niki shook her head, whispering just as indiscreetly. “He’s vampirically challenged. It wouldn’t be sportsmanlike.” Logan nodded, almost in pity.
Pearce, who was doing his best to ignore them, took the drink Felix had made for him and sipped it, making sounds of approval. “You were saying something about a spreading plague?” He looked to the faces of the others. “Might we be talking about our friend the Nosphorus?”
Felix’s smile lessened, then strengthened again. “How do you know about that?”
Pearce opened his mouth to answer, somewhat proudly, it seemed, but then stopped himself. He finally frowned. “Well, how to you know about it?”
“I know a man who owns some books,” Felix said easily.
“So do I,” Pearce answered, with a dismissive shrug. Both agreed without words to leave it at that.
“How far would the plague spread?” Niki asked, watching Felix’s hands as he found the small vial of white stuff under the edge of the bar.
“With a plentiful supply of vampires to carry it and a good two day gestation period in the average human...” Felix smiled at the ceiling as he considered the math in his head. “I would say the planet would be ripe for demon conquest in... a little under two months.”
Logan expelled a deep breath. “Two months?” He shook his head. “Demonic biological warfare.”
Niki nodded. “Crafty bastards, aren’t they?” She quickly looked up and held up a restraining hand. “Present company excepted.” Felix nodded, his smile unwavering.
“Tell them the good bit,” Pearce sipped at his drink as Felix uncorked the small vial.
The demon barkeep kept his gaze locked with the vampire for almost an instant too long. He then turned back to the Slayer. “The Nosphorus, like I told you before, looks just like a human until it needs to feed. Then it’s ugly beyond all comparison.”
“Which should make it easy to find,” Logan said comfortingly.
“Except,” Felix warned, “the more it feeds, the less ugly it gets.” Pearce was nodding as he nursed his drink. “Eventually, once it’s drained a good dozen people,” he stirred the white powder into the Slayer’s drink, “it’ll just disappear into the woodwork. Indistinguishable from any other vampire.”
“And then we’ll have a problem,” Logan rolled his eyes. “We can’t kill every vampire everywhere.”
“Well, if you wait,” Felix glanced at the ceiling to think for an instant, “a little under two months, you won’t have to. The Nosphorus is in town as we speak.”
“He’s here now?” Logan stood from his stool, looking now over at Pearce with a great deal of suspicion.
“Arrived on a plane just this afternoon,” Felix corked the vial and replaced it out of sight. Niki took a long pull from her glass, feeling the blood lust begin to course through her again. “Of course he could be anywhere by now.”
“I know some places we could look,” Pearce said hopefully. They glared at him. His eyes widened. “Hey, I’ve been here since last night, the Slayer will vouch for that.”
Niki grudgingly nodded. “We might as well go. We’ll check out the airport later, I really need to kill something right now.” She finished her drink and stood. As the three were about to leave the bar, Logan stopped them.
“Felix,” he asked, making the bartender look up. “Is there a cure for this plague? A cure for the humans infected with it?”
Felix’s smile widened farther than ever. “Three days of unspeakable agony.”
Logan’s gaze fell. “Naturally.”
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